Underground swimming pools traditionally use side skimmers and/or side and/or bottom drains to allow outflowing water from the pool to be cleaned of floating debris. Typically, the skimmer and/or the pool pump areas use filter type baskets to collect the debris removed from the pool. However, these current systems only work if the debris is already floating in the pool water in the vicinity of the skimmers and drains. These current systems do not agitate the water in order to move debris toward the skimmers and drains. Furthermore, these current systems do not brush against the sides nor the bottom of the pool. Typically, when a pool is cleaned, the sides and bottom must be manually swept by a brush and the debris manually pushed to the drain. This manual type of brush cleaning is both expensive in time and manpower.
Numerous patents have been proposed to automate some of the cleaning requirements presented above. However, none of the patents adequately solves the problems presented above. Floating type skimming devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,508 to Van der Watt; U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,940 to Lakotish; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,874 to Norton, describe stationary large bulky and unsightly skimming cleaners that float on the surface of the pool and do not clean side walls nor bottom surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,893 to Kane; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,063 to Brooks describe nozzle end hoses connected to pool water jets. Since neither device uses brushes, they are incapable of directly cleaning side-wall and bottom surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,563 to Steeves; U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,582 to Stephenson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,429 to Altschul; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,377 to Staples describe attaching brushes to hoses that are in turn connected to pool inlet jets. However, the brushes are fixed to the hoses and thus can only rub against interior pool surfaces in one direction and do not allow for rotating the brushes against the surfaces. These devices are further limited to selected areas within reach of their weighted down components.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,371 to Vernon describes a swimming pool cleaning system that says it can dislodge sediment from the walls and floor of a swimming pool, column 1, lines 8-10. However, the Vernon device requires anchoring the tubing system on the pool floor by a weight, column 2, lines 25-27, which would inherently limit the reach of the cleaning device from adequately covering all areas that are desired to be cleaned.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,533 to Proffit describes a swimming pool cleaner with a rotary scrubbing brush connected to a pool's water jets. However, the Proffit device primary cleans the pool bottom surfaces and side walls areas since the device stays "in close proximity to the bottom surfaces of the pool throughout a majority of the period of its operation", column 2, lines 3-6. U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,975 to Faxon describes a similar device to Proffit that is used for pipelines.
In addition to the limitations described above, none of the prior art devices cited allow for releasing any chlorine chemicals in the pool during their operation.